The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1887-05-23

Got roast turkey. Lou?" inquired Potter
smiling and smelling.
Even listless Lou wanted some dinner that
day; the rest recovered their appetites-
without any more lagerI
Il wish to the land you'd learn cookin' of
Aunt Prattp said Potter.
Il wonder If I've sewed up that hole?
thought Aunt Pratt.
But she had not Louisa was too old to
learn new tricks, as we say about dogs; she
continued to buy the best meat and cook it
In the worst way, and still the money leaked
from that hole in the bag.
"Hullo, Toni" said Potter one Sunday
morning. as Tom sauntered into the room
with a half smoked cigar in his mouth.
"Ain't you tonyp Why, that cigar smells like
a rosel"
Aunt Pratt wondered what sort of a rose
had an odor like tobacco.
1T had ought to-" sententiously remarked
Tom. Them fellers cost me five cents
apiece by the hundred"
We'll, kin put sGt up with my pipe so fur;
fling, reckon. By'm-by you'll fall back on
brier wood an Niger head
Another hole in the bag" murmured
Aunt Pratt, who had patiently darned Toms
threadbare socks and patched his worn
shirts for him every week for months.
"Well, here l beP" shouted Potter as he
came In one Monday about ten o'clock.
why, what has fetched you home|' in
quired his wife.
"0h, our fellers have struck we're goin'
to have less.work and more pay them darned
capitalists has over-rode us long enough
we're bound to have our share of the dollars
we make, now tell youw
"For the mercy's sakes!" calculated
Louisa.
"Where are you going to work nowY dry
| ly asked Aunt Pratt.
"Why, back again, as soon as the posses
come to terms" ,oy
"But supposin' they shouldn't"
ooh. they've got to, can't lose their con
tracks, no way; we've got 'em where the
"But supposin' they hold out for months
"Oh. we get allowance out of the assess
ments; we amt goin' to starye."
Who's paying them assessments =
"The fellers that have got money laid
away; they're taxed for the general good !;
so much week till the strikes over"
BE you assuredT'
Lord do We think I've got cent in the
bank? -Four children and staryin wages.
What's three dollars day with four in the
family, an clothes, an rent, an whites, an
light, an fuel, an doctors, an Lord knows
what alp"
"a bag with holes!" ran through Aunt
| Pratt's mind as she looked back on the past
| six months.
Weeks passed on; the "bosses" were not
only firm but hired other men in the strikers
| places, and went ON with the contracts. Pot
| ter sulked, and lounged and swore, and
made his pipe and himself a daily nuisance
in the house. Before long Aunt Pratt dis
| covered that the assessments were decreas-
| ing, and alarmed lest Potter should insist on
| sharing her small property among his brood,
on c0mmunistic principles, she quietly with
drew herself one day to an old ladies' home,
where the payment of small sum insured
her peaceful and pleasant home for life;
| and from her retreat she gave much aid and
| comfort to the women of the Potter family,
| but refused any to the two men.
81 can't waste my pittance on beer and
tobacco!" she said sharply; and she meant
what she said. When she died, her money
was all left to the Home where she lived, to
endow two free admissions, the three women
of the Potters to have the preference.
81 have lived" said that document. after
the term of the bequest, ''to see what the
Bible meant when it says in Haggai / 6,
'Ye eat, but We have not enough; We drink,
but We are not filled with drink; We clothe
you, but there is none warm; and he that
earneth wages, earneth wages to put into a
bag with holes;' and will not leave behind
me any dollars to go into that bag"
"Old crank" said the disappointed Potter,
when the lawyer finished reading
who? Haggai? politely inquired that
gentleman.